SPAP Alumnus Wins Poetry Prize

The 2017 Literature Prizes awarded by Casa de las Americas have been announced, and Raúl Vallejo, former graduate student of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at UMD, was awarded the “Premio de Poesía José Lezama Lima” for his poetry collection Mística del tabernario.

Mística del tabernario, written during the author’s extended stay in Colombia, is a book with multiple registers. The multifaceted work shifts from a long scenic poem, loaded with deep poetic reflection on the poet’s work in times of postmodern disbelief, to a testimony of his affection for the country that hosted him for more than five years, with varied autobiographical and intimate tones throughout.

Since 2000, Casa de las Américas has created three honorary awards that “are given to relevant books originally published in Spanish by an author of our America,” (“son entregados a libros relevantes publicados originalmente en español por un autor de nuestra América”). Other well-known writers that have received this award include Raúl Hernández Novás (Cuba), Juan Gelman and Ida Vilariño (Uruguay), and Tamara Kamenszain (Argentina).